Goafest 2008 rides the online wave

The campaign for the advertising festival has gone online with viral videos and a downloadable font

The Goafest 2008 campaign has taken on a virtual hue. The advertising festival organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Ad Club Bombay has already launched its TV and print campaign.

Now, Contract Advertising, the agency working on the Goafest campaign, has focused its efforts on the web. To start off, it has launched the newest version of its website, www.goafest.com. Replete with beach motifs, the site provides information about the awards and a download of its exclusive font, Goaface (http://icontract.andheri.net/downloads/Goaface/goaface.html).

The Goafest site

The site also offers downloads of Goascreen, a specially designed PC screen saver. Apart from the online downloads, the site also offers a mobile ringtone, Goatone, and a ringback tone, Goatune.

Contract has created seven films which are running as commercials on the TV Today network. The films have also been uploaded on YouTube and are available for download on the Goafest website. Co-produced and directed by Arjun Gourisaria and Arun Rao of Black Magic Motion Pictures, the films are a humorous take on the people who inhabit ad agencies. A film titled Crab Raechad, for instance, shows the inherent impatience with client servicing among creative people, ultimately giving them a ‘raw’ deal.

The Facebook page

This is the first time that such online and mobile properties have been built for an Indian awards programme. Speaking about the digital campaign, Manish Bhatt, vice-president and executive creative director, Contract, says, “This is one campaign where we have a lot of creative liberty from the client. The films (on TV) may come and go, but the online videos will remain longer. With the virals and other properties, we are trying to create more retainable elements for the campaign.”

The agency is promoting the videos virally by sending them to a select target group. For instance, an e-mail with a video making fun of client servicing is being targeted at creative people.

Apart from these, communities have been created on Orkut (http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=46078185) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10727646575) to promote the awards. Both communities feature the complete campaign, including the videos.

Bhatt adds that the agency is also speaking with mobile companies to promote the ringtones, but no deal has been finalised yet.

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